Rachel Blevins

6-14-17

This bill includes a 15-year, mandatory minimum sentence, and has such strict guidelines that a teenager who attempts to obtain a photo of sexually explicit conduct by requesting it from another teenager, would be in violation.

The United States House of Representatives has passed a bill to criminalize “sexting” among teenagers. But that’s not all. This ominous bill also punishes their parents by making them face a 15-year mandatory, minimum sentence.

H.R. 1761, the Protecting Against Child Exploitation Act of 2017, seeks to “criminalize the knowing consent of the visual depiction, or live transmission, of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, and for other purposes.”